We design and implement advanced sound masking solutions that enhance speech privacy, minimise distractions and build a more comfortable acoustic environment. From open-plan offices to healthcare spaces and education settings, Strive AV creates sound-scapes that protect conversation confidentiality and boost productivity.
Un-wanted noise and overheard conversations can affect concentration, creativity and comfort. By introducing a subtle background sound tuned to human speech frequencies, sound masking helps reduce distractions and maintain privacy. Whether you're looking to improve focus in a collaboration zone, safeguard confidential discussions in a medical environment, or simply make a workspace more pleasant, our solutions deliver measurable results.
We partner with you from assessment through to installation and calibration — ensuring your system is tailored to your building construction, ceiling type and usage patterns. The goal: a seamless, low-maintenance solution that blends into your environment while delivering superior acoustic performance.
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Whether you're refurbishing a floor-plate or equipping a new build, our specialists will work alongside you to assess spaces, design the right sound masking layout, and integrate with your AV and building systems. Our hands-on approach ensures the solution performs reliably, looks discreet and supports your workplace strategy for wellbeing and productivity.
UK sound masking is typically priced per square metre of treated ceiling area. As a guide, supply and install for a networked system using Cambridge Sound QtPro or Logison AC-S typically costs £18–£32 per m2 fully fitted, with smaller deployments at the higher end and full-floor rollouts at the lower end. A single 1,000 m2 office floor usually lands at £20,000–£30,000 including design, calibration and commissioning. We provide fixed-price UK quotes after a brief site visit or floor-plan review.
We are vendor-agnostic and design around the right system for the building. The most common UK platforms we deploy are Cambridge Sound Management QtPro and QtX (the Biamp range), Logison AC-S Acoustic Network from 777 Soft dB, Soft dB Logison and Atlas Sound. For premium hospitality, executive floors and architecturally exposed ceilings we also use K-Array directional emitters. The right choice depends on your ceiling type — accessible grid, exposed concrete, slab-to-slab partitions or open soffit.
White noise is a flat, equal-energy signal that most people find irritating because it emphasises the high frequencies your ears are most sensitive to. Sound masking is engineered specifically to match the spectrum of human speech (roughly 100Hz–8kHz with a tuned roll-off), so it covers conversation without drawing attention to itself. A correctly tuned UK sound masking system sits at 42–48 dBA, blends into HVAC noise and is essentially un-noticeable after about 10 minutes of exposure.
Independent UK and international studies consistently show that sound masking reduces noise-related distraction by 50–70 percent, with measurable productivity gains of around 8–15 percent in open-plan offices. Healthcare deployments improve HIPAA-equivalent (UK GDPR) speech-privacy compliance and can cut overheard conversations near nursing stations. For a typical UK floor with 100 staff, the productivity recovery alone usually pays back the system in under 12 months — and the system has a 10–15 year lifespan.
A typical UK floor of 1,000–1,500 m2 is installed in two to four working nights with no disruption to the business day. We work above the ceiling grid, so workstations and IT remain in place. Calibration is done after dark using a sound level meter and 1/3-octave analyser to verify each emitter zone meets the design spectrum. For exposed-ceiling environments using K-Array we typically work weekends to access cherry pickers. Larger campuses are scheduled in phases.
Yes. The BCO Guide to Specification recommends a target ambient level of 38–43 dBA in open-plan offices with controlled speech-privacy zones, and the WELL Building Standard Sound Concept (S05–S07) credits sound masking explicitly for both speech privacy and acoustic comfort. We design our UK installations to match these targets and provide acoustic test reports that map directly to BCO and WELL submission requirements. We can also support BREEAM Hea 05 (Acoustic Performance) credits.
Sound masking is most valuable in environments handling confidential conversations. UK NHS trusts, private hospitals, GP networks and dental groups deploy it at reception, nursing stations and consultation rooms to support GDPR-compliant patient confidentiality. Legal and finance offices use it around partner suites, deal rooms and HR pods to prevent overheard conversations. We design these systems to deliver measurably reduced speech intelligibility (Articulation Index < 0.20) in adjacent zones.
Modern networked sound masking systems are extremely low-maintenance. Cambridge Sound QtPro and Logison AC-S have no moving parts, are powered over a low-voltage bus and self-monitor for faults. We recommend an annual UK service visit to verify masking levels with a calibrated sound level meter, check zone balancing after any office reconfiguration, and update controller firmware. We also offer remote monitoring contracts so we are alerted to any emitter drop-out before users notice.
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